Is there a point in your career where ASQ certs become meaningless?

I used to hold CQA, CQE, CQM (now known as CMQ/OE) but for the last 10 years or so have only maintained CMQ/OQ.
I'm at the point of re-registering that one and, while I have a way more points than I need in training, I only sent on enough to make the points needed in the journal. I mean, just in the last year I did at least 80 hrs in various training sessions.
But I'm getting a hassle from the registration chair nit picking everything I sent in to the point where I'm about to say "hell with it" and stop responding to him.
I never had a problem in the past and I've re-registered a bunch of times.

Should I bother? Does it really matter? I've been at this a long time and I don't know if I'm getting any value at all out of this cert. I think they had more impact in job hunting or looking for promotion when I was younger.

Hard to say. I did limit myself to one certification (CQE) and keep it going if just because it's easier and cheaper to keep renewing it rather than dropping it and then having to take the exam again if for some reason I needed it.

I have had no problems with registration chairs over the years, but keep in mind you do have the option of sending your stuff directly to HQ.

ScottK said:

I used to hold CQA, CQE, CQM (now known as CMQ/OE) but for the last 10 years or so have only maintained CMQ/OQ.
I'm at the point of re-registering that one and, while I have a way more points than I need in training, I only sent on enough to make the points needed in the journal. I mean, just in the last year I did at least 80 hrs in various training sessions.
But I'm getting a hassle from the registration chair nit picking everything I sent in to the point where I'm about to say "hell with it" and stop responding to him.
I never had a problem in the past and I've re-registered a bunch of times.

Should I bother? Does it really matter? I've been at this a long time and I don't know if I'm getting any value at all out of this cert. I think they had more impact in job hunting or looking for promotion when I was younger.

Click to expand...

I stopped at one. I saw no benefit in maintaining multiple certs.

I know a few people who have EVERY cert listed by ASQ. For one or two, it was an ego thing to get them all, but the others are spending a lot of their time as instructors in the various quality disciplines and the certs are necessary to get the paying gigs. Most employers today do not give special consideration to the initials after a candidate's or current employee's name - they are more interested in actual on-the-job successes. This situation is a lot different than it was twenty or thirty years ago when an ASQ membership carried some prestige.

I agree with Steve that once a practitioner achieves a certification, he/she should keep it current by keeping an accurate log of the qualifying activities necessary to satisfy ASQ HQ.

I've never encountered a registration chair who was a Kwality Kop who looked for reasons to deny credit. If a registration chair is playing "gotcha" with most others in a Section, he soon will be "Ex-chair." (there is always a possibility of a personal vendetta against an individual by such a chair )

Over the years of my membership, each registration chair in the Sections I was in made a point to offer print logs or software to keep track of recertification credits, emphasizing the documentation needed to qualify as a credit and would remind members at EVERY meeting of opportunities to earn credits outside of their own jobs. If the registration chair in your section isn't similarly proactive, he just may need some help to become more effective in the role.

My thoughts ...
Have it .... Keep it

But I'm getting a hassle from the registration chair nit picking everything I sent in to the point where I'm about to say "hell with it" and stop responding to him.
I never had a problem in the past and I've re-registered a bunch of times.

Click to expand...

Deal with this chair (ignorant chair) without getting yourself disturbed and patiently. You have bigger things to keep your focus.

but keep in mind you do have the option of sending your stuff directly to HQ.

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A good option to mark a copy I suppose ...
Again.. Have it, Keep it. You are more than its worth.

I had a CQE for many years, but it never made a difference in pay or opportunities. As a hiring manager, I never made a decision based upon it. I suppose if everything else had been equal, it might have made a difference, but that scenario never arose.

On the other hand, I have known several people with a CQE that didn't have a lick of common sense and were mediocre quality engineers.

I'm only bothering to keep my CMQ/OE.

I have (let me think a moment) six ASQ certifications, and three other certifications. Does my employer care? Not directly. However, I work in government consulting. Very often, the people creating the RFPs or evaluating the responses, will not realize how much overlap there is between the various BOKs. Nor will they necessarily know about more than one particular cert. If they ask for a Six Sigma Black Belt , then the SSBB is the only cert that matters, even if any good CQE will have the necessary skills. So I maintain them all, and use the one(s) that seem to apply at the moment. And just as a point of reference, I am a fairly senior guy, usually a team lead, or the senior SME on a contract.

I hold seven, although two or three have lapsed, I dont think that matters much, although I did get my job directly based on the fact I had the certs in the field they were looking for. For me the recurring ones are too expensive to maintain. I plan on two more in the future, and that will be it. Some , like SSBB do seem to help get a foot in the door where SS is stated in the job qualifications, other more general ones do not help much.

Geoff Withnell said:

I have (let me think a moment) six ASQ certifications, and three other certifications. Does my employer care? Not directly. However, I work in government consulting. Very often, the people creating the RFPs or evaluating the responses, will not realize how much overlap there is between the various BOKs. Nor will they necessarily know about more than one particular cert. If they ask for a Six Sigma Black Belt , then the SSBB is the only cert that matters, even if any good CQE will have the necessary skills. So I maintain them all, and use the one(s) that seem to apply at the moment. And just as a point of reference, I am a fairly senior guy, usually a team lead, or the senior SME on a contract.

Click to expand...

my thoughts are that, once past a certain point, its pretty much useless.

for disicplines like lean six sigma, most MNCs have their own certifiying dept and MBBs. even with a ASQ black belt, they might still require you to recourse and re certify.